I was fine with the hot weather when I didn't need to go out in it (we have air con at work) and the worst part was my seatbelt getting hotter than the sun on my drive home. I'd be cold in the mornings before work and the house would be not too warm when I got back. Until today. It was particularly hot and humid today and not cold last night. And I was so tired I went to bed early and then slept late. So at no point when I was awake was it colder outside than it was in. I am tired of the hot weather.

I have been procrastinating on my Unconventional Courtship fic, which is why I haven't done anything else. I sit down in the evening, intending to write it, dick around in the internet and go to bed having achieved absolutely nothing. I have been listening to some First Doctor audios in the car in the mornings and it's been good to re-listen to them (and justify having kept the CDs).

But tomorrow Wimbledon starts. I'm looking forward to not quite wall-to-wall tennis due to the football. But I am glad I have a digital radio, as 5 Live Sports Extra is pretty much constant Wimbledon. But I have my Fantasy Wimbledon team sorted and my finalists prediction in: Federer vs Djokovic in the final. I'm not feeling terribly confident about that, but all the people I thought could get to the final are in Federer's half of the draw.

Sammy has been fine in the heat. I still don't see much of him and he's still unsure of me when he realises I'm in the room. But when he surprises me, he's much better, coming to the front of the cage for food. Although he only takes a few bits before going back to his bed and store/eat them.

I need to post about Never Seen Star Wars for July, but since I'm not doing anything for it until after Wimbledon, it can wait.

1. There was an interesting episode of Timeless this series where they went back to 1919 and it was all about women's suffrage. Which was interesting because there's been so much about a hundred years of women's suffrage in this country. I never considered what it was like in America. The answer, when I looked it up, was complicated, because different states had different things going on. But Alice Paul, who was in the episode, really existed.

2. In May my morris side started dancing out one evening a week. Although due to illness and holiday and a clash with choir, I've only made it to three so far. Given that I don't hate driving to places I don't know, it's been a bit nerve-wracking. Especially to one pub in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, and I only knew the first five minutes of the route. I am very glad of my sat nav and Google Street View, so I can do the route the night before and know what I'm looking for. Although Google's directions were a bit interesting one week when they told me it was right by the dual carriageway, so all I had to do was to turn off it. Completely ignoring that I can only come off it at a junction.

We dance in clogs, which made things interesting to start with. There's a lot going on underneath, so it's a bit like walking in platforms, which I've never done before. At first I felt like I was going to fall over just walking, never mind dancing. But now I've got used to them and my only problem is going too excited and ending up on tiptoes. And dancing on ground that turns out to be uneven, which can make things a bit interesting.

3. After looking through a load of summaries for unconventionalcourtship, when I came to sign up I picked the first one I have saved. I have 800 words on it so far and I know where it ends, just not quite so sure on how to get there yet. Some of the wording still might change a bit, but the summary is:Coming home to the country offered Barbara Wright the chance to make a settled, secure life for herself. But there was a complication – in the shape of her ex-fiancé, millionaire ex-colleague Ian Chesterton. He was still the gorgeous man who had swept her off her feet before – and the attraction between them was electric!
It would have been easy for Barbara to let Ian seduce her seduce Ian. But not so simple to explain the secret she'd kept hidden for years she was keeping hidden. If Ian learned the truth, would he be so keen to reclaim his runaway bride colleague?

4. I have a hamster - his name is Sammy. I've actually had him for three weeks, but he's scared of everything. It's only in the past week when he's started to take food from me. Although that can take a while because he's scared of the rustle of the bag of treats and scared of the noise the box of food makes... The cage is in a bit of a dark corner, but I managed to take a photo one morning, when he got out of bed when I was having breakfast.

The weather forecast said it was going to be hot this weekend and I needed to clean the house, so I got most of the cleaning done in the week and just had a bit to finish off on Saturday morning. Which was good, but it's been chilly in the mornings and hot (if not as hot as forecast on Wednesday) in the afternoons and evenings (not to mention hayfevery).

With all that time I finished off my Fandom 5k fic. And then didn't quite know what to do with myself. I have started collecting possible Unconventional Courtship summaries for a few pairings. Although there are only so many Mills & Boon summaries I can read before I can't deal with all the clicheness any more. And why do so many of the 'Classic' ones involve Amish?

I did make a start on the mess of the spare room. I realised if I freecycled one pile, charitied another, and took a third to the tip that would be much of the stuff gone. And then I could put away the stuff I'm keeping but can't get to where it needs to live. And go through all the crap in the wardrobe because there's stuff in there I could also get rid of, if only I could get to it. Of course now I need to go to the charity shop and the tip. Since I didn't start this until Jo Konta's match was on the radio on Sunday it was after the charity shops were closed for the weekend and I'm not going to tip on a bank holiday weekend, it'll be too busy. And too hot to sit in a car in the sun, roasting.

Speaking of tennis, the French Open started yesterday. With a re-designed website where it's impossible to find the order of play. At least the BBC have it. They had Jo Konta's match on 5 Live Sports Extra, but then switched over to 5 Live. Except there was a gap where the news was. So I was listening on the BBC website, which had all the sound from the court, but no commentary. Which is fine on TV, but not as useful on radio. Unless you know who is serving, the scores during the games are particularly unhelpful. I know I could have watched it on ITV whatever number it's on, but it involves adverts, Jim Courier and a love of swirling around the crowd and zooming into the court. So I'll save that for the final because that's probably as much of all three of things I can take.

I went to Ikea and Hobbycraft this weekend. I haven't been to Hobbycraft for years, which is just as well: it's a dangerous place. I spent more money than I did in Ikea and can not say I don't have enough card making stuff (it only just fits in the drawer). And I also now have plenty of Aida, as I am close to finishing my last cross stitch kit and then will do some from patterns using up the approx 70 million threads I have.

Ikea is lovely and empty at opening time on a Saturday. That's the only good thing I can say about it... I've never been on my own before had to be told by the cashier what to do with everything I had. I didn't bother with a trolley and although I happily carried a bag of cross stitches that needed framing, some frames, a lamp shade, a back door mat and a 10kg 100x50 cm table to the till, afterwards I couldn't work out how I'd done it. I had to go on a mission to find a trolley without dropping anything.

I managed to cut my thumb open in the middle of Ikea: I had a frame with broken glass courtesy of the window men. Since the glass was sitting in there and not moving I thought it would be fine to take it like that. I should have known that a) that's not a good idea and b) if I can break something/injure myself I will. Fortunately I had plasters with me, but I was miles from a toilet (probably).

And then there was the car park. I've only ever parked in one multi-storey car park before and that was in the evening when it was pretty empty. I'm not really fond of going up ramps in multi-storey car parks as a passenger and I think I've only done it once as a driver. This one required me to go up a spiral ramp. Theoretically it's fine once you have the wheel turned correctly because it's all the same. But I went up on level to a closed floor, decided I couldn't manage another level, got most of the way there and then hit the side. Going down was much better, although I was glad I was behind someone because you pretty much had to drive round the whole car park to get out and I'd have got lost. When I did get out I ended up in the wrong lane, as I assumed that on a roundabout with two exits the left lane would go left and the right lane would go right. Which it didn't. And I knew that from looking at Google Street View in advance, but was so freaked out from the whole experience I had forgotten.

If I ever decide I need anything from Ikea again I am only going if it's with someone else who is driving or I'll get it delivered. £7 seems like a small price to pay (and probably what it costs in petrol to get there anyway).

Every time I think work's calmed down it calms right back up again. It is currently calm, and with choir having stopped for Easter I am enjoying having more free time and energy to enjoy it.

I signed up to Fandom 5k. My self-imposed deadline on my 25k fic was so that I could sign up. Given that I wrote a 5k fic for Yuletide and a 5.5k fic earlier this year because I was a bit sick of the endless long thing and wanted to write something short(!) I think I should be able to do it. So far there's one person I could write for, a few more days of sign ups and some other possibilities I might yet offer.

I finally managed to work through b2mem at the weekend. Somehow it's become traditional that I don't have time to read any of it in March and then as soon as April hits I do it all in one go.

I am used to watching non-fictional things on TV or saving them up. So when I watched Episodes on Friday (series 5 finally on in this country) it felt strange that I'd have to wait a whole week to find out what happens next.

The Commonwealth Games starts tonight! On the other side of the world, again. I looked at the schedule, couldn't tape all of that, so I am hoping the BBC will make it easy to watch things later (especially the swimming). And then I'll catch up at weekends. Hopefully.

While I didn't have a hamster I thought I'd get some holidays in. I was going to Chester anyway for a wedding and I'd already made some tentative plans to go to Edinburgh. Said plans got less tentative and then I thought I could go somewhere else. The only weekend I had free when it wasn't the Easter holidays was last weekend. I then discovered that staying on a Friday or Saturday night was twice the price. Which worked out well because I ended up going to Bath on Sunday when there were trains running (if not all of them).

I've heard a lot about the snow elsewhere in the country, but it wasn't as bad where I was. It still wasn't great, but we didn't have the 7 inches of snow they apparently had in Bath. I worked from home on Thursday because although there wasn't enough snow to completely cover the ground, the weather forecast said it was going to get worse. I was at the point of deciding the forecast was wrong when people at work went home because it was so bad there. Work is only 10 miles away!

After being out in -4C (in seven layers, not including coat, scarf, hat and gloves), 5C (ish) felt really warm. Bath was good, although I did loads of walking. The Waterstones there didn't have a separate social history section, but their 20th century history section had quite a few books I'd got or read, which was pretty good. I looked in the crime section for Daisy Dalrymple, because having read ebooks I'd never seen any covers in person. They had three, very brightly coloured, one of which was Superfluous Women.

One of the things that has bothered me about the books is the way all the women are married off (or about to be). Yet after the war there were a lot more women of marriageable age than men. Which turned out to be a good thing in the end because no longer were women expected to just get married. They could have jobs and no longer was spinsterhood something to be pitied. Turns out this is the book that does deal with this. And in the acknowledgements, the author has read the same book I have on the subject. On the basis that money spent on books when you're on holiday doesn't count, I bought it.

While I was there I went to a comedy club that had a few new stand ups doing short sets. Some of them were funnier than others. Some of them were better than others. Although the best ones were the ones that were confident. The nervous ones didn't come across as well. It was interesting that quite a few had notes written on their hands to remind them of their jokes.

Between my cold and the cold I've been in a lot, so it was good to get out and about. Although I seem to have ended up going out nearly every night this week. And I like Bath: it's pretty and you can get to everything in the city centre. I was sad to leave until I was walking home from the station and it was so quiet. And then I realised how much I missed the quiet. I like cities to visit and they're handy to have nearby, but I couldn't live in one.

I went to Chester last weekend, came home and then got a cold. Work has been busy before and since, hence the lack of posting.

I wouldn't have chosen to go up north in the middle of winter, but I went for a wedding and since it involved four trains, I stayed for a bit longer. I ended up doing most of Chester in a day, which involved being out in the sun, wind, rain, hail and snow (not all at once). It was nice when it was sunny and the wind wasn't blowing. But not otherwise. It was pretty though.

A combination of lots of walking, going up four flights of stairs to my room, swimming 500m every evening (there was an 18m pool in the hotel), wearing my warm winter boots rather than walking shoes meant I ended up with shin splints. Which I've never had before, but I was glad I wasn't staying longer because I couldn't manage any more walking. But my feet were warm.

I got back, woke up the next morning with a cold. I can't just have a cold, it also sets off my asthma and dizziness, so it saps all my energy and I can't breathe. At least it waited until I got back.

I am getting some holidays in while I don't have a hamster, so I'm off to Edinburgh in the spring and another holiday in a few weeks. Usually I plan where to go and then take the time off. This time I've found a weekend I can have off and am yet to decide where to go.

In the meantime I am enjoying the Winter Olympics. A lot of the sports I just need to see a bit and then I've seen it all (except for people falling over). And a lot of them involve so much movement and camera movement that I got too dizzy if I watch too much. None of which counts for the curling. Which this morning included an excellent view of the Norwegian team's trousers.

It feels like everyone had babies in 2017. Although in reality it's only three and only if you count the beginning of this year as 2017. Which isn't that much of a surprise in some ways, because I went to a lot of weddings a few years ago (where four counts as a lot). But it's had a terrible effect on my social life.

When I went to the tennis or to see comedians, I used to go with my sister. Which was fine until the end of 2016 when we saw Adam Hills. And then she very selfishly had a baby this year (who I plan to use to go to things that would be odd to go to without a child when he's old enough, but that's not going to be for a few years yet). Between that and other babies and illness (and weather) I haven't been to any tennis, the only time I went to the theatre was to Harry Potter, which I booked in mid-2016, and the only comedian I saw was Ellie Taylor, when the local theatre emailed that week to say she was on. Amusingly, her set was all about how she was in her 30s and everyone was having babies...

But this year is going to be different. I've decided that if I want to go to something I will just book it and go. Then it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing. So I am already going to see Lucy Porter and Dara O'Briain in the spring.

I am doing better. Although my lounge still looks big and empty with the spaces where Missy's cage and toys were. And my evenings seem so long now they've not interrupted.

I decided I didn't need to do anything unless I had to. So possibly the most productive thing I've done is to watch all of season 3 of Dark Matter, which I'd had sitting around for months. Handily, I'd done all my Christmas shopping and sent my Yuletide fic off to beta.

I also listened to a lot of podcasts at work and while I was doing things around the house. I seemed to be permanently 10 episodes behind on Confessions, but now not only am I caught up but I'm working my way through episodes of The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry from before I started listening. Although the one about itching made me itch all the way through...

I went to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Wednesday. It was well-timed really, as I wouldn't have really been up for it the week before, and before Missy died I was worrying about leaving her all evening (as I didn't get home until midnight). I was excited about it when I booked it a year and a half ago, and I bought the book. And then I found the book disappointing. However, seeing the play is a lot better than reading the script. I thought the kid who played Scorpius was particularly good at getting the laughs, and the actor who played Ron looked most like the film actor (although I was quite a long way away from the stage).

What was also good about going was that there were quite a few people there on their own or not sitting with the people they'd come with (due to the difficulty of getting tickets) and I learnt all about returns. So if anyone wants to go it's well worth rocking up on the day because chances are you'll get a ticket.

The part of the programme I read first was the actors and what they'd been in in case I recognised any. I was literally reading the TV and film bit and not taking any notice of the actor's names when I noticed one had been in An Adventure in Space and Time. It turned out that Jamie Glover was Harry Potter. It did distract me a bit, thinking about how good an Ian Chesterton he'd be on audio. I eventually concluded he'd probably be quite good. Given that I've already bought the First Doctor audio Big Finish are doing with The Adventure in Space and Time cast, that's just as well.

And in the chorus scenes I was distracted trying to spot Ged Simmons (DI Cullen) in The Bill. I think I did, but then I also noticed he'd been in Outnumbered, and I don't remember him in that at all.

And I wasn't the only person there with a scarf from the first two films (before they changed the uniform). But all the staff had the new uniform ties and scarves.

I am sorting out avoiding Star Trek Discovery spoilers at the moment. This is because it's only on Netflix and I plan to only have Netflix for the one free month. So I need to start late in order to get all the episodes into one month. I am only having Netflix for one month because I don't like Netflix because:

It refuses to tell you what's on there until you sign up - what if you signed up and then found there was nothing you wanted to watch? You've then wasted your free month.

Everyone has it.

I've also got annoyed with the amount of Discovery stuff I've been seeing on Twitter and RSS, not that I've been reading it. It makes me feel like everyone is going to watch it, which makes me not want to.

I had the same thing earlier with Strictly, when I saw a stat for how many people watched it two weeks ago. I made me feel like if all those people were watching it, I don't want to be one of them.

It's one of the reasons why I can't stand Converse shoes and you couldn't pay me to wear them. I dislike the way they look anyway, and I wouldn't wear branded clothes or shoes (except DMs if they were cheaper and I wore skirts). But everyone wearing them just makes them that little bit worse.

It's not everything. I wear jeans, I watch Doctor Who, I love Wimbledon. I don't know what the difference is. It's not just coming late to the party - I read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and only after that did it seem like everyone was reading/had read it. At which point I wished I hadn't, even though I liked it. It's very irrational. But at least it gives me plenty of thing to try for I've Never Seen Star Wars.

I haven't blogged for a while. Partly because I've been busy setting up my new computer (I'm going from a Windows laptop and Linux netbook to a Linux laptop, so there's a lot to do), partly because the weather recently has been too nice for computers and partly because my body hates me and has decided not to let me sleep in, so I am tired.

But I have changed my LJ layout. I found that the old one having a fixed width was a bit annoying some time ago and started on a new layout, but didn't finish it. Now I have a new computer the old width has gone from exactly filling my browser to a tiny thing in the centre (my resolution on this computer is ridiculous - and that's after I took it down from 3200x1600). The good thing about having not worked on the layout for a bit is that I've forgotten what it was I wanted to change. So I did a few bits and declared it done. Once I use it then I might find some other things I want to change. I want to change the DW layout too, because it's so very white when commenting, but it wasn't as simple, so I'll leave that for another day.

Ballet is back! Or will be, in a couple of weeks. I have missed it, although when I'm back in a boiling hot dance studio I might change my mind. The dance studio is on the south side of the building, with one wall of windows and is the only room in the building that doesn't have air conditioning. But this time of year it's light enough in the evenings that I can walk there, which is so much better for my leg muscles, if not for my hayfever. It does mean that in June I'll have three weeks in a row where I'm out three nights in a row, so how much else I'll get done in the meantime is another question. At least I have my weekends mostly free because….

Tennis! The French Open has started, which means that I can now tell you how many weeks it is to things, if not the date. I haven't watched any of it so far. The trouble with it is that it has adverts every time they change ends, which drives me mad. I could live with that if they didn't have Jim Courier commenting - he likes the sound of his own voice and makes it so hard to concentrate on the tennis. The best commentators find something pertinent to say that fits between serves, but he can't manage either of those. It feels like the points are just a pause between what he's saying. And to top it off, the cameramen like to swing round and zoom into the stadium, which makes me dizzy. So I pick my matches carefully.

I have, though, been listening to it on 5 Live Sports Extra, for the few matches they've broadcast. It was good to have tennis on while working. Although when Andy Murray was carrying on and losing a set I'd rather have been listening to Kyle Edmund, who managed to win in straight sets. Brits aside, it's looking like an interesting tournament, although I can't see how could possibly beat Nadal. I have the second Friday off and I'll have to decide what I want to do most: stay up for the election or watch the tennis.

This weekend we managed to have a rare combination of nice weather, time and energy, so I could do gardening. Of all chores it's the most annoying because it always seems to be nice when I'm busy or don't have the energy, and as soon as it's a good time to garden it's blowing a gale or raining. But yesterday was good and my garden now has fewer weeds, which is always an improvement.

After that I spent the afternoon in the traditional manner of Sunday afternoons when it's nice weather: lazing around reading.

Missy is an idiot. She's an intelligent hamster, but useless at finding food. Hamsters are supposed to be good at finding food using their sense of smell, which is really good. She can't find food when it's right under her nose - she just looks in places where she's used to finding it. Then when she does find it, after I've hidden it among her toys, she sticks it in the sofa. I dread to think how much food is in there.

My hoover died, so I bought a new one. It took me forever to get it out of the box. I ended up having to open it at both ends, remove the vast amount of cardboard that wasn't doing anything (except preventing me from getting the hoover out) and then managed to pull it out. At one point I thought I was going to have to cut the box vertically. I piled the cardboard up, as I thought Missy would like something new to investigate. But she wasn't interested. She's quite keen on the hoover box, though.

My RSS feeds went from silence about LJ to lots of drama the past few days. I still much prefer commenting on LJ because the email notifications tell you the post title in the subject, unlike on Dreamwidth. But if anyone has strong feelings about preferring me to comment on DW rather than LJ*, let me know and I can change my RSS feed.

I've got out of the habit of quite a few things over the last few weeks. Work has been busy and I've been out a lot of week nights, so I haven't had energy to do anything at the weekends. So I have got out of the habit of blogging and fic writing and TV watching (evenings in involve playing with Missy).

But now I have a few weeks off going out for Easter (aside from a few nights) so hopefully I will get back into these habits.

But this weekend I've had energy, which has made a nice change. The weather being sunny and warm helps. I went swimming this morning - and purposely didn't do many lengths because I knew I had to come home and hoover.

I did manage to get my dw-guestfest done on time this year! Although it's not the fic I meant to write. I meant to write one that would fill a square on my Gen Prompt Bingo card and cross off a WIP from my list. Except when I opened it I realised I'd left a gap between the end of the previous Tenth Doctor & John Chesterton fic and the beginning of the this, so I wrote the bit that goes in between (this time without a Press Gang title*).

*Although a "write a fic for every Press Gang episode title" would be a good (if big) challenge.

This week was half term, which meant I had nothing on in the evenings. I felt sure this would mean I'd be able to get lots of writing and TV watching done. On Monday I did some work on my hetswap fic and watched the earliest of the four Cats Countdown episodes on my PVR. And then it all went to pot.

Missy was ill. She's fine now, but she was sleeping a lot. So theoretically I had more time to get stuff done, but in reality I was too busy worrying about her. And being distracted by the internet.

And then once she was better I decided that I'd do some of the house cleaning in the evenings so I wouldn't have to do it all at the weekend. So between playing with her and cleaning that was my whole evening.

And then work was busy and I didn't have enough sleep so of course I then kept waking up before my alarm. And not much later today and yesterday. So even though I've had a quiet week, I am tired.

This week I'm out every night. But it's fine that I have four weeks of TV recorded, plus stuff from Christmas I haven't watched. And writing deadlines are for watching them whoosh by...

This week has been busy. I had one of those weeks where I was out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Monday I went food shopping and Wednesday I played with Missy until I was struggling to keep my eyes closed. So Friday I watched TV and played with Missy and that was pretty much all I had the energy for.

I have three more of those weeks between now and Easter. But this week is half term, so I have nothing at all on any evening.

An I have my hetswap fic to write. I started late because I had Chocolate Box treats to finish. I now have three first drafts of my hetswap fic - I hope the third time is the charm because if I don't get it finished this week I'll be back to having no time to do it in.

And after that, no more exchanges for a bit. I want to be able to write for myself, talk about what I'm writing and not have to have this unbreakable deadline. And work on my WIPs. I have signed up for the Doctor Who Minor Characters Ficathon, but I am writing one of my WIPs for it and it's not the end of the world if I miss the deadline - as evidence by last year when I finished my fic about six months after the deadline.

This week has been busy:
Monday I spent part of the evening sorting out sending out things I'd sold on eBay and Christmas presents to go overseas. All while Missy complained and carried on because I should have been playing with her. As soon as I'd finished she went for a nap.
Tuesday was Rotary Christmas dinner.
Wednesday was ballet.
Thursday I went shopping, and tried to get as much as possible that I might need this month so I don't have to go too much more.
Friday I left work and got to my car to see one of my tyres was flat. So I got home late after that.
Saturday I got up early to get my tyre fixed (driving on the spare is horrible). I spent the rest of the day alternating cleaning the house and working. In the evening I drove into the city.
Today is my day for relaxing, catching up on TV, catching up SGA Santa reading, since that's started posting this week. And maybe attempting to write some Yuletide Treats.

I didn't mean not to post (or comment) for so long, there were just too many other things going on. First there was the Paralympics (and US Open tennis and Davis Cup). Then once that was all over and I was wondering what to do now there wasn't any sport on I ended up going out four nights in a row and Saturday. And getting into a pattern of staying up late watching the Paralympics and waking up early and just getting tireder. Missy also got used to playing late, especially when I didn't get in until 10pm most evenings last week.

Much as I enjoyed the Paralympics, Channel 4's coverage was just not as good as the BBC's with the Olympics. There was half an hour in the evenings where there was no Paralympics on any channel. There was so much chat: even on the final day I ended up needing to watch the Wheelchair Rugby online because they were too busy recapping everything to show any actual sport. To say nothing of the marathons that I was looking forward to and they barely showed. There were a lot of sports that barely got shown - it was mostly swimming, athletics and cycling. Much as I enjoyed the swimming (especially as it wasn't on as late at night as the Olympic swimming). It didn't help that there was tennis on at the same time. Much as I got used to the adverts, I am glad not to have to watch any any more. They got very samey very quickly.

I went swimming on the last day of the Paralympics. I had a morning free, so I went. Last summer I tried the first day of the couch to 5K where, in 30 minutes, you run for 8 minutes in total, a minute at a time. I hadn't been swimming since before I got dizzy (nearly eight years ago) and I spent most of 30 minutes swimming. Very slowly, but I enjoyed it far more. I didn't half ache after that. I thought I'd got better by the time ballet went back, but then I discovered I hadn't really. And then I went out stewarding for a sponsored walk and bits of my legs have really not recovered at all.

In some spare minutes I have managed to write a first draft of my femslashex fic. It is terrible, but it is above the word limit at least. I have managed not to sign up for the Stargate Atlantis secret santa this year. But I am thinking of signing up to public_call instead. I worked out my Yuletide requests some time ago, now I just need to narrow down my offers. But I am glad two (or more) people nominated SJA - I thought about it, but having worked out what three fandoms I wanted I nominated those in order to make sure they were there.

Of course, it being September, lots of TV started up, even though there was still a lot of sport on TV. The only thing I'm up-to-date on is Red Dwarf XI. In fact, more than up-to-date because I've been watching it on UKTV Play. I liked the second episode better than the first. I am still taping them, so I can watch them again, although I'll be asking for the DVD for Christmas or buying it myself anyway. It is Red Dwarf, after all.

The Paralympics is on, which is why I don't really have the time for anything else. Despite there not being as much to watch as the Olympics all the good stuff is late at night, which has meant I've been staying up later than I intend to. The adverts are a pain, although I am getting used to them. But not so much that I will watch them any time before the next Paralympics.

Technically this weekend is my only free weekend this month, but since it's also the Davis Cup, I don't know how I'm going to fit all this sport in, even without going anywhere. To say nothing of needing to clean the house and do some gardening.

In other news, I got the exact fandom and pairing I was hoping I'd get for femslash. I have some ideas, I'm just waiting for the sport to stop so I have some time to write. I also did well in my assignment - there weren't many people I could have matched with but all the others had no prompt and/or letter.

There is so much on TV now it's September. I haven't watched most of it, what with there being sport on TV. But I am more used to watching TV around Missy playing in the evening (largely because her idea of playing consists of sitting in her cornflake box, but still), so maybe I'll actually catch up with some on weekdays I'm in. But since next week is my first week of going out three nights, I don't know if that'll happen...

I've seen various things in various places about people who are members of minorities talking about how important it is to them to see their minority on TV/in films etc. Which has never really applied to me because I'm not a minority. And then I remembered I am.

I got very excited when Big Finish's UNIT box set arrived. But because I was ill I didn't get a chance to listen to it before Counter-Measures arrived. Which I listened to first because I was more excited about Counter-Measures than UNIT (much as I love Kate, I love Rachel, Allison & Gilmore more). In it was a scene that reminded me Rachel was Jewish. In fact the scene suggested that her parents were really religious, but she doesn't seem to be. It reminded me that you don't get many Jewish people in books/TV etc in this country (you do in American series, but then there are more Jews in America).

Of course, you have no way of knowing what most people's religions are since most people in this country are not religious. There's a default assumption that everyone's Church of England, where churches are for baptisms, marriages and funerals, Christmas is for presents and arguing with your relatives and Easter is for eating chocolate. And the religious make-up of the country says that you'd probably be right if that's what you assume. There are just non-religious people of other religions about and it was nice to realise I was listening to one on audio.

A side-note about minorities, because this amused me at the time and I never said anything about it then. But last year (I think) I was looking at a ficathon about women and one of the criteria for characters you could nominate mentioned the women in question considering themselves a minority. I thought that rules out Lynda Day...

I knew this was going to be a bit of a crazy week, but it ended up being worse than I thought. I knew work was going to be busy and I was out three nights in a row. It turns out that work was so busy that I managed to go out one night and the other two I was still working/brain dead from work. But other things happened too:

I went to see Coldplay on Sunday night. It was really good, but we didn't leave until after the tennis, so made it to our seats 5 minutes before Coldplay were due on. I remembered to wear ear plugs this time, which made it really weird singing when I couldn't hear myself properly, and scared me when I took them out and heard the rain/people leaving. But I left without any (extra) ringing in my ears.

Because I wasn't going to make the last train back, I stayed at my sister's (and then had Monday off, meaning that I then needed to get five days work done in the space of four). Her house is so big and roomy it's hard to get back to my small, crowded house (in comparison). It was lovely and quiet though - I never heard my sister get up and go downstairs for breakfast, even though I was awake when she did it. And I had my own bathroom, since her spare room has an ensuite.

I didn't get much blogging done last week because I was writing. I have to post my Unconventional Courtship fic tomorrow and my NPT fic is due soon. They are at least both nearly finished, before I ended up not having time or brain to work on them.

It feels strange that Tim Peake is back on Earth. I got used to him posting photos and time-lapse videos from the ISS on twitter.

I've been watching Episodes and really enjoying it. And then Stephen Mangan was on last night's Last Leg and suddenly his moustache from Very British Problems was all explained when they mentioned he'd been playing Postman Pat.life